Here Kitty, Kitty!

Look who I found at Goodwill last week~ she's purrr-fect, and she was mine for only a dollar!

 (I think Kitty is a bookend...) 

Speaking of Kitty, see Fergie looking in to see what I was doing?
I think that he wanted his picture taken....

A New Year?

I am now seriously working on bettering my self disciplines. Today I am starting a "new year", with a real Weekly Schedule....well, three actually:

1. Me as a person. (sleep/exercise/planing time for my pursuits/my Walk/etc...)
2. My health/relearning to eat right.
3. My place in the running of the household. (remember, I tried this before: click here)

Part of me thinks that all this at once is a bit much, but most of me says now or never! =)  I was told that September is a better month to start (and keep up) new things, so I thought that I would get a head start! =)

~Please feel free to hold me accountable~  Thank you! =)

  I can do ALL things through CHRIST who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

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Remember my "I CAN" post? (HERE) I think that it is a good one to re-share with you.

Schatte~Benner Wedding

(I swiped these first 2 photos~ thanks Mrs. Schatte!)

Mr. and Mrs. Benner:

 Father and Daughter:

 5 maids in waiting~

Bethany and I, in polka-dots! =)  (my new skirt- click here!)

 The Grandfathers and ME's children...sooo cute!

Mrs. Bee & I.  Mrs. Bee's jumper has cherries on it! =) 
(Mr. Bee took this one)

I could not just pick one of these:

Mom and my "niece" Olivia. (ME's baby)

I do love my Ma & Pa....

Mr. Bee and grandson Big D. Buttons:

My "nephew" Charlie and his Daddy...he was really cute, but just as the photo snapped, he let out a bleat ~ "MAma!"  ....cute little guy!

Mom and Lis:

Mother~Daughter (& Mrs. Babb!):

Have you ever played Volleyball at a wedding reception? Not a bad idea! =)

They had pennants and lights strung everywhere! (The reception was held at Rehoboth Ranch)

Waiting, and WAITING, to throw bird seed...

...the groomsmen set off a nice volley of Fireworks as the happy couple left!

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  (And I had a great time palling around with my friend Beth!)

"Haven't Met You Yet"

 Have you heard this song yet?   
Michael Bublé makes me think about Sally HH and Phyl Lauer.  I miss them both. =]

You have to watch the video all the way to the end...it's so funny! =)
 Embedded:



(or click here)

Poor guy ~ he must see this girl in the market all the time, but he just is not brave enough to say anything to her.

From what I have read about guys (in books like "For Women Only", and "Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart"), they are easily crushed, so they HAVE to think long and hard before they say/try anything.....so we shouldn't tease them. =)

A Cupcake Party

I tried a new recipe, from a new cookbook~ The "Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes" in Martha Stewart's Cupcake book (here).  My GrandMary bought the book for me at Costco, when we went out to Carson City in '09....I had never baked anything in it...just drooled all over the pages!  Now is the time to begin baking through the book!

This recipe had some firsts for me:

~ zestting and juicing an orange

~ "folding" in egg whites

~ filled anything

~ buttering and flouring the "cupcake tins" (totally worth it, but cupcake wrappers were fine.)

 The changes I made:

~ I used European Mixed Fruit Jam (from Big Lots)
~ Duck eggs
  ~ No glaze...I really was going to make the glaze, but I decided that they did not really need it.

The recipe actually made 18 instead of 16...I shared them with our lovely neighbors across the street, the lovely folks we buy our milk from, Hannah, Wade from the CVFD, my family and 4 Davis'.  =)
(By 10pm or so, every last cupcake was GONE! That makes me smile!)

 

Can you believe this pan? You should see the oven....

 

This photo is to confess that I did cave in and tasted them. But only one little bite...that was enough to confirm to me that they were indeed really good!

Happy Birthday Hannah & Hailey ~

2 were different...they had Plum jam & cupcake wrappers!

 A fun time was had by all (I hope!) ~

Thank you so much for coming, girls!

Granola...

...for "Gatherer" of the GenoType Diet world...

 Pre-heat your oven to 350

Mix together the dry stuff:

5 1/2 cups Organic Oats and Almonds (I used about 2 1/2 cups Almonds and 3 cups Oats)

1/4 cup Rice Bran

1/2 cup Coconut (I know, I shouldn't have!)

...and beat up the wet stuff (I used a glass 2 cup measure):

1/2 cup Rice Bran Oil

1/2 cup Egg Whites

1/3 cup Molasses/Honey (MORE molasses and less honey)

1 T. Cinnamon

1/4 t. Salt

optional:

   1/2 t. Vanilla

   1/8 t. Butter Flavor

I ended up mixing in a lot of extra toasted almonds after- it needed more!

~Happy Eating!

Adrienne

Little Kids 1

These were taken last Saturday...I was at a friend's house, helping baby-sit some children: church friends mostly, and our neighbor's cousins.

(I may have had these on my head before the girls did...)

M. Mittens:

We went Blueberry picking too...can you imagine it?
5 families represented, made 4 "families".
23 people: 17 children & 6 adults (1 Dad, 5 big kids).
Only 2 strollers & 3 vehicles.  ...I'm not sure if we were "street legal", it's a good thing that the Berry Farm is only around the corner! =)

K. Buttons:

The reason that I only have these 2 photos, is because I was just too busy, and at the last minute I thought "OH NO! I forgot to take pictures!!!"  =)

......all's well that ends well.

                  .....what do you think, Sarah~ should we go to the Zoo next time?

Crackers~

~ for "Gatherer" (kind of), of the GenoType Diet world.

1. At 10-11pm on a Saturday night I mixed up some cracker dough.

2 cups Whey
1 cup Kefir
1 Tablespoon Salt (not enough)
2 teaspoons Baker's Yeast
5 & 1/3 cups of flour:  Oat/Barley/Spelt and maybe 1 cup of Rice flour, because I ran out of everything else.
2 cups Rolled Oats
a glug of Oil (I don't know how much- see the picture above)

 After mixing it up, I left it (covered) on the counter over night.

 2. About 10am Sunday morning, I added another 1 & 1/3 cup Rolled Oats and left it again until:

3. 7pm Sunday night, when I rolled them out (like a pie crust- between 2 sheets of waxed paper), cut them, and brushed them liberally with butter (I added a bit of salt to the butter, but you don't have to), and baked them at 350.  

(I baked 3 pans and called it a night- I stored the rest of the dough in the fridge....and baked the rest on 2 different days later on in the next 7-10 days.) 

~Eat'em up, eat'em up, yum, yum!~

(Mom said they were a bit sour, I did not notice...)

Pie?!?!?!

(Just click on the pic to read the recipe better!)   
 On this occasion we used butter and lard...the result was a very soft & fragile crust. Hard to work with before it's baked, and shatters after baking it.  Oh well, live and learn right?

When Mom and I make Pie Crusts we like to make a lot at the same time...because they freeze well.  We made 8 double crusts...so that's 16 singles!  (We like quiche and apple pie, remember?)

And to be honest...we don't like to wash the sticky, messy dishes very often! =)

Isaac~

Remember when we went visiting, and I did not get to hold the baby? (here)  Well, last night all three of us popped over, and I got to hold baby Isaac! He is about 13lb ~ nice and squishy! =)

Sunday afternoon~

 

I just thought that I would make a few scripture pictures today.

 

 

Would you like me to make one specially for you?

Lucky Charms~

I was going to have an embedded video, but for some reason it would not embed. So you will have to watch it HERE instead.

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I only remember eating Lucky Charms one time...at my best friend, Kendra's house when we were 5 or 6 years old. She and I had slumber parties~ mostly at her house! =)
I remember early mornings at the Rush's house- quietly eating Really Sugary Cereal, quietly feeding her animals, quietly watching cartoons like Ninja Turtles!

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  Did you know that Lucky Charms was created in 1962 by John Holahan? 

 You can read more here.

(I know that this ad is from before our time (1981!), but it's about right...except that we were 2 blondes in PJ's!)

A good idea:

....just please don't cut yourself! =)  ~~~  (I found this picture on Facebook)

Ladies & Gentlemen...

...we have a winner for my very first Giveaway!  =)

 ....Congratulations Dorothy, over at  the "...Goodbye, Yellowbrick Road!" blog!  
Please contact me by Friday night, at threemckees (at) gmail (dot) com, so I can mail your package to you!

I know that I told you that I would have my unbiased neighbor, Ruth, do the drawing for me, but instead I used another unbiased friend (and neighbor) ~ Sarah!  =)   Thank you Sarah!

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 How we did it: 4 double tickets....

...I wrote the names on the backside of the " Keep this coupon", and I left those in the house...

 ...Sarah drew out on The Mound (the deck by the pond), so even I did not know who won until later when I went inside!

Thanks friends~ my Followers increased 20%! (I now have 10!)  See you around! =)

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(...more giveaways are coming!)